


Punishments

by WeHadABondingMoment



Series: Adrien Angst [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste Needs a Hug, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Author Is Not Fluent In English, Bad Parent Gabriel Agreste, Child Abuse, Child Neglect, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Forced Starvation, Ladynoir friendship, Other, Protect Adrien Agreste, Punishment, SADrien, Sandboy (Miraculous Ladybug) - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-30
Updated: 2019-09-30
Packaged: 2020-11-08 06:10:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20830688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WeHadABondingMoment/pseuds/WeHadABondingMoment
Summary: After a brief moment of silence, she looked at him, a puzzled expression on her face."I did not know you had claustrophobia..?""Because I don’t?", Chat Noir replied, visibly confused. Only a second later he realized how she first came to this assumption.Please don’t ask, please don’t ask, please don’t ask ....Or: After the events of Sandboy, Ladybug and Chat Noir talk about their nightmares they faced as civilians. Angst with a happy ending.





	Punishments

"Chat?"  
  
The superhero's cat ears twitched in the direction of the voice, his head following shortly after.  
  
"M'lady?" He asked, his eyes meeting hers. Her blue eyes shone in a silver sheen, where the light of the moon struck her, inspiring the teenager to think up a new cheesy pick-up line, just to see her annoyed face.  
  
But he pulled himself together, it was not the right moment to get lost in thoughts.  
Maybe he would have time for that later...  
  
"When we defeated Sandboy today ..."  
  
Turning his gaze to the floor, Chat Noir began to hope that his partner wouldn’t mention his nightmare again. It had been so incredibly uncomfortable for him ...  
He shuddered, the feeling of humiliation still fresh in his memory. Her horrified look as she realized what exactly the fake version of her was saying.  
  
"Did you have two different nightmares?" Ladybug asked.  
She bit her lip, obviously nervous. Presumably at the thought that he would say no.  
  
Once again, the boy in the black leather suit realized how less she knew about him, how rarely he actually got the chance to really talk to her. They usually split up during their patrols, and even if they ran together through the streets of Paris like tonight, Ladybug was often reserved and in a hurry.  
  
"Yup," he replied. "One as a normal civilian and one as a superhero."  
  
For a moment his partner was silent and let her gaze wander over the rooftops of Paris.  
"I'm so glad that nearly no one witnessed my other nightmare," she said, shuddering.  
  
He gave her a lewd smile and wiggled his eyebrows.  
"Is that so?"  
  
She sighed and rolled her eyes before she hit him lightly against the arm.  
"Oh, shut up."  
  
"Meowch ... But alright, if you tell me more, I'll think about it ..."  
A wink on his part, his eyes still following hers.  
  
"Okay, but please ... don’t laugh."  
  
To lessen her insecurity, he put on his most unconvincing smile and reassured her with a truly genuine tone of voice that he would never do that.  
Ladybug's mouth twitched and he congratulated himself - well done.  
"It was about the boy I love," she began, studying him briefly, probably to make sure it wouldn’t bother him too much.  
  
Of course, he still loved his partner, how could he do otherwise, but he had resigned himself to the idea that his feelings were not reciprocated.  
  
"He ... talked all the time about the fact that he loves this one girl and that he would marry her and name that hamster after me ..."  
Amused, Chat listened to his partner's chaotic narrative and suppressed the thought of how cute the heroine was when she blushed in embarrassment.  
  
"... And you know what the scary part was? This girl he talked about was CHLOÉ! "  
  
A chuckle escaped his throat before the superhero was able to suppress it.  
Imagining Ladybug's love interest falling for the person who was responsible for half of all akuma attacks was too hilarious.  
  
"Heyy! You said you wouldn’t laugh! "His partner's voice had an accusing undertone and for a moment fear spread through him until he realized that she was just playing around.  
  
"I'm sorry," he lied, still very convincing. Definitely.  
When it came to professionalism, no one could hold a candle to him. After all, Chat was known worldwide for his seriousness.  
  
"What was your other dream about?" Ladybug asked, still amused.  
  
All of a sudden it was Chat who felt uncomfortable.  
He loved fooling around with the red-dressed superheroine and right now the moment was so perfect, he did not want to destroy everything with his childish dream.  
  
However, he didn’t want to leave Ladybug's question unanswered either.  
  
"Not nearly as entertaining as yours, bugaboo. Locked up only in my room, iron bars, and stuff. "  
Seeing Ladybug's eyebrows contract, he quickly added, "No big deal, I was able to apply my cataclysm before they got so close that they displayed a danger to space."  
  
However, the cat-like hero did not achieve the desired effect in the slightest, his partner's eyes even widened.  
  
After a brief moment of silence, she looked at him, a puzzled expression on her face.  
"I did not know you had claustrophobia..?"  
  
"Because I don’t?", Chat Noir replied, visibly confused. Only a second later he realized how she first came to this assumption.  
  
Please don’t ask, please don’t ask, please don’t ask ....  
  
"Why does something like that count as your worst nightmare then? It's clear that being imprisoned is bad, but your own room? Does it look that bad? "She asked, a playful undertone in her voice.  
  
Chat scratched the back of his head and gave her an embarrassed smile.  
"That's not it. I like my room, how couldn't I? It's just... I don’t like being locked in there. "  
  
Embarrassed, Chat looked at the roof below, avoiding his partner's gaze.  
  
After all, it was not uncommon to be locked in your room from time to time if you did something wrong. It shouldn’t matter that much to him. Plus, as he said, his room was great, right? Others would kill for a room this size, he should really be more grateful...  
  
A hand on his shoulder made him wince and pulled him out of his thoughts.  
The superhero shook himself briefly to remember that he did not have time to think in detail, not when he spent time with Ladybug. Their spare time was way too precious for that.  
  
Ladybug's eyes were shining in sympathy. Sympathy for him.  
  
"Sorry, I got kinda lost in thoughts. What did you say?"  
  
"I asked if you were already locked in there, chaton."  
  
Chat's tail twitched. "If I'm doing something wrong, I should be punished for it, don't you think so?"  
He felt sick when he saw the incredulity in her stature.  
"Wait, your parents lock you in your room as a punishment!?"  
  
She seemed angry for some reason, so he looked at her a little desperately, not quite understanding what he had done wrong. He really didn't want to make her mad.  
"Yes?" He said hesitantly, making the statement seem more like a question. "Don’t yours?"  
  
He felt a little stupid at the question as if he was asking her if she'd ever read a book. Waiting for an answer, Chat began to chew on his lip with his teeth, forgetting that they were sharper during his transformation and therefore he soon had the metallic taste of blood in his mouth.  
  
As he licked his lips to clear them of the blood, Ladybug answered with an incredulous "No!?".  
Chat scratched the back of his head. "I know, it's childish that I mind... On the other hand, that’s kinda the whole point of a punishment, isn’t it?"  
In his eyes, the atmosphere had changed from comfortable to tense way too fast.  
  
"Which other punishments do you receive?" His partner asked, her sky blue eyes filled with determination and something else that Chat simply couldn’t interpret.  
  
"Uhh ... Pretty normal, I think," he replied, ignoring that his mother had theoretically hasn't punished him for a long time. She physically couldn’t.  
  
Ladybug made an inviting gesture, should he continue anyway?  
"Depends on what I did wrong," he simply added, still hesitant.  
  
If he didn’t play one of his piano pieces perfect, he was forced to practice. But that had improved, by now it was not more than two hours at a time, so maybe that didn’t count.  
  
Eating sweets had an impact on his weight, so he was given the choice to either miss around 300 calories the rest of the week (more than he needed to, but apparently, that was called discipline) or the faster option which ended in the bathroom.  
  
If the photos in a shoot were not good, there was a looong talk, which usually consisted of the typical "You're an Agreste, behave like it" speech. But at least his father bothered speaking to him, so that was good, right?  
  
If he didn’t follow his father's word or disobeyed him, he was usually reminded that his father could take him out of school at any time or fill his daily schedule with a few extra appointments.  
  
Adrien, no, Chat, did not know which ones were interesting for the superheroine so he told her about all of them, describing “modeling” in a way that was hopefully enough to not make her suspect anything.  
  
Ladybug looked at him, a look like the one she'd worn a few hours earlier when she'd learned what Chat’s nightmare, the fake ladybug actually said.  
Why? Were the punishments of their parents that different?  
Maybe her parents are just very nice. Or Nino was right and there were many other kinds of parents.  
But that did not necessarily mean his dad was bad at it, right? After all, Gabriel Agreste was a lot of things, perfect was definitely a part of it.  
  
"Oof, that sounded a lot more dramatic than it is...", he added uncertainly.  
"Dramatic? Chat, that sounds like neglect and damn abuse! "  
Ladybug sounded angry, so angry. Chat opened his mouth to say something, anything, just to stop making her furious. However, his last words had originally brought this reaction out of her...  
  
"You're exaggerating. Sure, it would be great to see him without having to make an appointment with his secretary, but- "  
"You have to what!?" Chat flinched, preparing for an apology on his part, but his partner was not finished yet.  
"Chat, that is not OK! When I have a bad day and eat sweets until I nearly throw up, my parents come to give me emotional support. Whether talking or hugging, whatever I need. They're not forcing me to push my damned fingers down my throat! "  
  
Blinking hard, Chat tried to think of something else.  
He would not start crying just because someone yelled at him.  
Just because she was angry does not mean she would leave him.  
  
That's why the young hero hated emotions. His head thought logically, he knew that Ladybug was not even mad at him. But his heart felt. And it felt panic, to a degree where he desperately craved more air.  
  
"Normal parents tell you how much you mean to them and show that they are serious!”  
Ladybug let out a deep sigh. "When did they last locked you in?"  
  
Chat was silent for a while, not really in the mood to talk about his dad.  
“He caught me a few weeks ago, when I came back to the house after an akuma attack, so now he insists on locking my door in the evening when the gor- no one can watch over my every step. "That's why I didn’t show up during one of the last patrols. I was under... observation."  
  
Ladybug grimaced, and he noticed that she was knitting her eyebrows, as she always did when she was thinking. She seemed to have realized that talking about it didn’t help him right now, because she started to ask him a completely different question.  
  
"Do you know how to play tag?"  
  
His thoughts landed on a girl who was being akumatized a few months ago because she was always found to fast while playing hide and seek and Ladybug's shocked face when he had asked the heroine what exactly that was.  
  
He shook his head and she ran to him just to nudge his nose.  
"Tag, your it. Just try to catch me. As soon as you touch me, we'll switch. "  
She looked at him, waiting for his response as he quickly touched her arm with his hand. Presumably, she had let him do this, but that didn’t bother him. If anything, it made him happy that she waited for him to understand.  
"Like this?", he asked, not being entirely sure if the body part he touched mattered. Maybe it was supposed to be the nose… He hoped, he wouldn’t miss it and hit her eye instead.  
  
"Yep," came her answer. She flicked his forehead and swung her yoyo towards another roof.  
The game seemed like it was a never-ending race – Chat approved - and as he chased after her, trying to predict which way she would go, a warm feeling began to spread in his chest.

**Author's Note:**

> At the beginnign, I wanted Ladybug to explain what a normal punishment looks like but my parents either punish me not at all or in ways that are not normal either - according to my friends so yaaa xd
> 
> By the way, if you have any ideas for a one shot (angst please), you can suggest it and if it inspires me, I'll write it.


End file.
